Comparison of intravascular and extracellular contrast media for absolute quantification of myocardial rest-perfusion...

To use the contrast agent gadofosveset for absolute quantification of myocardial perfusion and compare it with gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA) using a high-resolution generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA) sequence.

Ten healthy volunteers were examined twice at two different dates with a first-pass perfusion examination at rest using prebolus technique. We used a 1.5 T scanner and a 32 channel heart-array coil with a steady-state free precession (SSFP) true fast imaging with steady state precession (trueFISP) GRAPPA sequence (acceleration-factor 3). Manual delineation of the myocardial contours was performed and absolute quantification was performed after baseline and contamination correction. At the first appointment, 1cc/4cc of the extracellular contrast agent Gd-BOPTA were administered, on the second date, 1cc/4cc of the blood pool contrast agent (CA) gadofosveset. At each date the examination was repeated after a 15-minute time interval.

Using gadofosveset perfusion the value (in cc/g/min) at rest was 0.66 ± 0.25 (mean ± standard deviation) for the first, and 0.55 ± 0.24 for the second CA application; for Gd-BOPTA it was 0.62 ± 0.25 and 0.45 ± 0.23. No significant difference was found between the acquired perfusion values. The apparent mean residence time in the myocardium was 23 seconds for gadofosveset and 19.5 seconds for Gd-BOPTA. Neither signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) nor subjectively rated image contrast showed a significant difference.

The application of gadofosveset for an absolute quantification of myocardial perfusion is possible. Yet the acquired perfusion values show no significant differences to those determined with Gd-BOPTA, maintained the same SNR and comparable perfusion values, and did not picture the expected concentration time-course for an intravasal CA in the first pass.